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T O P I C R E V I E W

Robert Pearlman

NASA release

Expedition 20 Crew to Launch from Baikonur

Flight Engineers Roman Romanenko, Frank De Winne and Robert Thirsk of the 20th International Space Station crew will launch in their Soyuz TMA-15 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 6:34 a.m. EDT Wednesday to begin a six-month stay in space.

Expedition 20 will mark the start of six-person crew operations aboard the International Space Station. All five of the international partner agencies - NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) - will be represented on orbit for the first time.

Photo credit: RSC Energia

Romanenko, a cosmonaut with the Russian Federal Space Agency, will command the crew's Soyuz spacecraft through launch and docking, and serve as a flight engineer for Expeditions 20 and 21. He was selected as a test-cosmonaut candidate of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center Cosmonaut Office in December 1997. In November 1999, he was qualified as a test cosmonaut.

De Winne, a European Space Agency astronaut, will serve as a flight engineer for Expedition 20 and commander for Expedition 21. De Winne spent nine days aboard the station in 2002 as a member of the Odissea mission.

Thirsk, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut, will serve as a flight engineer for Expeditions 20 and 21. In 1996, Thirsk flew as a payload specialist astronaut aboard space shuttle mission STS-78, the Life and Microgravity Spacelab mission.

Photo credit: RSC Energia

Expedition 20 crew members will be welcomed by the Expedition 19 crew, Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineers Michael Barratt and Koichi Wakata, after their docking to the orbiting laboratory, scheduled for May 29.

Padalka, a colonel in the Russian Air Force, also will command the Expedition 20 mission and serve as Soyuz commander. He previously served as commander of Expedition 9 in 2004. During Padalka's first stay at the space station, he performed four spacewalks.

Barratt also will serve as a flight engineer for Expedition 20. He served as lead crew surgeon for the first Expedition crew to the station from July 1998 until he was chosen as an astronaut candidate.

In addition to serving as a flight engineer for Expeditions 18 and 19, Wakata will serve as a flight engineer for Expedition 20. Wakata is the first resident station crew member from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. He will return to Earth with the STS-127 crew.

Robert Pearlman

Soyuz TMA-15 launched from Roscosmos' Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 5:34 a.m. CDT on May 27, with International Space Station Expedition 20 crew members Roman Romanenko, Robert Thirsk and Frank De Winne.

Video credit: NASA TV

They are scheduled to arrive at the station at 7:36 a.m. on Friday, inaugurating the long-awaited presence of a six-person crew. It will also mark the first time that all five ISS partner agencies are represented by crew members on the orbiting outpost and will begin Expedition 20.

Thirsk, who will serve as a flight engineer for ISS Expeditions 20 and 21, is the Canadian Space Agency's first long duration crew member. His first flight to space was as a payload specialist on the STS-78 Life and Microgravity Spacelab mission.

De Winne will become the first European Space Agency astronaut to command the International Space Station when he leads the Expedition 21 crew. This is his second visit to the ISS, having spent nine days there in 2002 as a member of ESA's Odissea mission.

Photo credit: NASA TV

Robert Pearlman

Soyuz TMA-15 docked with the International Space Station at 7:34 a.m. CDT on May 29 orbiting over the south coast of China at an altitude of 189 nautical miles, or about 217 statue miles.

Video credit: NASA TV

Hatch opening between the Soyuz and Zarya will occur about 8:45 a.m., marking the beginning of Expedition 20 and continuous six person crew operations.

Robert Pearlman

Soyuz TMA-15 hatch opening and crew welcome

Video credit: NASA TV

Robert Pearlman

NASA release

NASA TV to Broadcast Station Crew Soyuz Landing Events

NASA Television will air the events surrounding the landing of three International Space Station crew members who will return to Earth Dec. 1. The space travelers have lived and worked aboard the space station for the past six months. NASA TV coverage will include the broadcast of farewells aboard the orbiting laboratory, hatch closure and undocking on Nov. 30, and the deorbit burn and landing Dec. 1.

Frank De Winne of the European Space Agency, Russian cosmonaut and Soyuz Commander Roman Romanenko and Flight Engineer Bob Thirsk of the Canadian Space Agency will undock their Soyuz spacecraft from the station at 9:53 p.m. CST Nov. 30. They will land in Kazakhstan at about 1:16 a.m. (1:16 p.m. Kazakhstan time) on Dec. 1. The three men spent 188 days in space, including 186 days aboard the station, following their Soyuz launch on May 27 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.

NASA's Jeff Williams took over command of the station on Nov. 24 from De Winne, who served as the first European Space Agency commander of the complex. Williams also will lead the new Expedition 22 crew along with Russian cosmonaut Maxim Suraev. Expedition 22 begins with the undocking of the Soyuz Monday evening. It will be the first time the station has been tended by only two crew members since July 2006. Oleg Kotov of the Russian Federal Space Agency, NASA's Timothy J. Creamer and Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Space Agency, are set to launch in another Soyuz vehicle from Kazakhstan on Dec. 21 and join Expedition 22 on the station on Dec. 23.

Soyuz TMA-15 commander Roman Romanenko, European Space Agency (ESA) flight engineer Frank De Winne and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Bob Thirsk boarded their ride home and closed the hatches separating them from the International Space Station at 6:43 p.m. CST.

They will undock the Soyuz from the station at 9:56 p.m. to land in Kazakhstan at 1:15 a.m. CST Tuesday (1:15 p.m. Kazakhstan time) to conclude 188 days in space, 186 days on the station.

Credit: NASA TV

Robert Pearlman

Soyuz TMA-15 undocks from the space station

Soyuz TMA-15 undocked from the International Space Station at 9:65 p.m. CST Monday, concluding 186 days at the outpost.

Credit: NASA TV

Roman Romanenko (Roscosmos), Frank De Winne (European Space Agency) and Bob Thirsk (Canadian Space Agency) now set to land at 1:15 a.m. CST Tuesday on the steppes of Kazakhstan.

This is the first landing of a Soyuz spacecraft in December since 1990 when Gennady Manakov, Gennady Strekalov and Japanese journalist Toyohiro Akiyama landed aboard Soyuz TM-10 after a mission to the Mir space station.

Due to wintry conditions at the landing site, the Soyuz ground support team's helicopters that would usually be employed to recover the crew were grounded. Instead, the team was dispatched in all-terrain vehicles from the nearby town of Arkalyk to extract the crew members from the spacecraft.

The three cosmonauts will make the 50-mile journey back to Arkalyk by land.

Credit: NASA TV

Romanenko, De Winne and Thirsk arrived aboard Soyuz TMA-15 at the International Space Station (ISS) in May as part of Expedition 20, which marked the start of six-person crew operations on the outpost. With their arrival, all five of the international partner agencies -- NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) -- were represented on orbit for the first time.

Romanenko served as flight engineer for Expeditions 20 and 21. The son of veteran cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko, he became a cosmonaut himself in November 1999.

De Winne served as a flight engineer for Expedition 20 and the first European ISS commander during Expedition 21. He previously spent nine days aboard the station in 2002 as a member of ESA's Odissea mission arriving on a new spacecraft, the Soyuz TMA-1, then leaving on the older Soyuz TM-34.

Thirsk served as Canada's first long duration station crew member as a flight engineer for Expeditions 20 and 21. In 1996, he flew as a payload specialist aboard STS-78.

The three are scheduled to fly back to the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, outside Moscow, early Tuesday for reunions with their families and for the start of their reorientation to a gravity environment after spending half a year off the planet.

Commander Jeff Williams and flight engineer Maxim Suraev remain on the station, comprising the Expedition 22 crew as a two-man contingent for three weeks until the arrival on Dec. 23 of Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, NASA's TJ Creamer, and Soichi Noguchi with JAXA aboard Soyuz TMA-17.